Fleeing the flu bug

Influenza may be waning off, but the season isn’t over. It’s possible to get two different strains of flu virus in the same season. Learn what the recent trends have shown, why LMH staff and volunteers must be vaccinated, how to prevent a severe case and what to do if you get the flu.

Coughing, sneezing, high fever and chills, headache and aching body — those are some of the typical symptoms of influenza, or the flu.

The influenza season started early this year and some people were prepared.

“I’ve been getting the flu shot about 30 years,” Eula Dixon of Grifton said. “I don’t want to get sick. I’ve never had the flu since taking it.”

Dixon said she regularly gets her flu shot the beginning of January because “it’s usually bad by February.”

As a certified nurse assistant who works in people’s homes, she’s often in close quarters with people who are sick.

Judy Fletcher of Kinston said she’s been getting a flu shot for at least six years — usually in August — and has been “flu-free” since then. But she had a serious case in 2004.

“I was really bad and wound up in the hospital dehydrated,” she said.

It wasn’t until a doctor recommended she start getting the vaccine because of her husband’s health problems that she began getting the shots.

It was also a doctor who advised Bobby Cox of Kinston to get a flu shot this year to help prevent his 85-year-old mother from catching the illness from him.

“I had a little taste of (the flu) before I took the flu shot,” he said. “It was the first flu shot in 30 or 40 years.”

FLU TRENDS

“I think we’ve seen probably a little more of flu-like symptoms and viruses early,” Sylvia Connor, Employee Health coordinator at Lenoir Memorial Hospital, said, “starting probably October and going through December (to) January, and it seems to have lessened a little bit in the last few weeks.”

The early flu season still leaves some time for another strain of the illness to possibly make its rounds.

Some people have suffered a double whammy — where one bout of flu is followed by another — but the second one is likely a different strain, Kristen Hoover, LMH’s infection preventionist, said.

“People could be infected with flu virus A,” she said, “get over it, get well, then come down with flu virus B.”

The majority of flu cases were the A type.

Hoover said this year’s vaccine has reduced doctor visits by about 60 percent. About 91 percent of the flu viruses that were tested are included in this year’s flu shot — making it a “good match,” she said.

“That’s good,” she said. “That’s showing if you do get the vaccine, it’s working.”

Statewide, the Center for Disease Control statistics show a low incidence of flu from early October until Dec. 1 when there was a sharp increase. The numbers peaked by the end of December and dropped sharply in January.

Page 2 of 4 - LMH’s numbers — both emergency room visits and positive lab tests — were similar. The increase began around mid-November, peaked in mid-December, and leveled off again about the end of January.

In 2011-12, it was a relatively uneventful year for flu.

“Last year, it never seemed like we saw many cases,” said Chris Miller, nursing supervisor with Greene County Health Department. “This year, we have seen more cases and we saw it much earlier.”

Hoover said mild years often create a feeling that the flu may not be something to be concerned about, but no one should think it’s not something for which to prepare.

Flu in 2010-2011 was typical for the area. Flu cases rose around the beginning of January, peaked in early February and leveled back down by April.

“Typically, people want to say that the peak of the season is in January and February,” Hoover said, “and that’s what we typically see.”

GETTING VACCINATED

Connor said the risks of being vaccinated might include soreness and redness at the injection site, fever, headache or body aches. It takes about two weeks after the shot for a person to develop antibodies for protection against the flu.

“Sometimes people think they’ve gotten the flu by getting the flu vaccine because they have some of these side effects,” Connor said, “but (the flu shot) cannot give you the flu … because it’s an inactivated virus in the flu shot.”

Ginger Raines, immunization nurse with the Lenoir County Health Department, said the health department provides free flu vaccinations for children ages 18 and under and files Medicare for adults. Other adults pay a nominal fee.

Raines said it’s a good idea to get an annual flu shot because other illnesses can develop from the flu.

The flu can lead to pneumonia and even death, Connor said.

There’s another reason to get the shot.

“Some people need to take it,” Raines said. “so other people who cannot take the flu shot don’t catch it.”

But people who are sick cannot receive the flu vaccine until they are well, Raines said. So, it’s best to get the shot early in the season when the vaccine first comes out, usually in September. The season is typically October through May.

Greene’s health department, which sees children and pregnant women, performs tests at the start of people having flu-like symptoms, and then they don’t usually keep testing when they continue to see the same symptoms, Miller said.

“We would test in the beginning if we wanted to see if it was truly the flu,” she said.

FLU SHOTS MANDATORY AT LMH

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For the first time, Lenoir Memorial Hospital required all its employees to get the flu vaccine as of September 2012.

“We felt like it’s the right thing to do,” Connor said. “It’s an immunization just like other required immunizations. We want to protect our patients. We want to protect our staff.”

People who should not get a flu vaccine include those who have had a serious reaction to an allergy, such as from eating eggs, or from a previous flu shot, or have had Guillain-Barré syndrome within six weeks of getting a flu shot. Most people don’t have a serious reaction, Connor said.

“Here at Lenoir Memorial, they have to have the flu vaccine to work,” she said, “and unless they have a medical contraindication. But if their physician strongly believes they should not get the vaccine … then we would not give the employee the vaccine.”

Previously, the hospital highly recommended the shots and had 50 percent to 75 percent compliance, she said.

“Now, everyone had it,” she said, “unless they had a medical exemption — all of our staff and volunteers.”

The Center for Disease Control has stated the flu vaccine this year has been effective, but it’s too early to tell if there have been less or milder cases since the vaccine became mandated, Connor said.

Connor said she had a flu shot in September, but had flu-like symptoms for about 48 hours in December. It’s possible it was a different strain or her symptoms were lessened by the vaccine, she said.

“The flu can typically last much longer than that,” she said. “The fever can be much higher. You can be sicker or be out of work or be incapacitated longer than a couple of days with the flu.”

TAKE CARE WITH THE FLU

When exposed to the flu virus, symptoms may take one to four days to begin and the exposed individual can spread the illness from the day before symptoms develop until up to seven days after becoming sick. Children may spread the virus even longer.

If you get the flu, go to the doctor early because there are antivirals to reduce symptoms, Hoover said. Advice includes staying home, coughing into the crook of the elbow and washing hands often.

“That’s one of the single most important things that you can do,” she said, “to prevent any type of infection is washing our hands.”

Kay Ten Pas, clinical nutrition manager at LMH, said the hospital’s dietitians recommend the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans for general health. It recommends low energy, sodium and fat, high fiber, limited lean proteins and minimal saturated and trans fats and sugar.

“When we think about the flu,” Ten Pas said, “one of the things we think most about is staying hydrated.”

Page 4 of 4 - She recommends choosing beverages not high in caffeine, but plain water is one of the best choices.